Snowy rotten apples

Our apple trees have been snow crusted for days now. Yesterday I noticed there were still some rotten apples hanging tightly from a branch there, apples with snow caps.

Sunny Christmas Day

Clear skies means colder days. Temperature dropped nearly 10 degrees C in one night, but as a result, we have had a beautifully sunny Christmas Day here. Now, at 2pm, the sun is slowly setting, after staying just above the horizon for some four to five hours or so. It will be dark in less than two hours.

Winter wonderland

This year we here in Finland don't need to dream of a white Christmas. We have one. Truly, like something our of a Disney movie, just see for yourself:

Rainy December

Snow came and went. December has (so far) mostly been relatively warm and rainy. Today the sun came out though, like it did maybe once last week too. We have all of six hours of daylight currently, so the sun rises around 9AM and sets around 3PM. 

First snow

First snow came down on Friday. November became instantly prettier even though I don't really like snow per se. The snow came down thick and wet, as the temperature was only right there at zero degrees C. It piled on berries and apples that are still hanging on to their tree branches. It was a fluffy 10-15cm that is bound to be gone by Tuesday; the temperature is already on the plus side again and should climb up to +5C or so according to the weather forecast. These November snows rarely stay on the ground for more than a few days.

 

 

 

 

Icy

After a mostly very warm autumn, winter has shown its teeth this week, reminding everybody that the cold and snow is on its way again. Yesterday we had the first snow, sort of. Light white stuff fluttering around, settling on the ground for a while, making the roads slightly slippery here and there for half of the day. Today there is no snow left, but it is cold and windy and all the little creeks and puddles are frozen and even the ponds on the golf course are partly covered with a thin layer of ice.

Our Timmy, the dog that we got in late July, is puzzled and confused by th cold and ice. It's probably the first time he experiences them. And the need to wear a pullover. He seriously dislikes it...

 

 

 

Foliage and mushrooms

Autumn around here is starting to be at its best, with trees and undergrowth, like blueberry bushes, changing form green to yellow, orange and red. Many trees have lost all of their leaves already. Mushroms are everywhere, a lot of them already decaying.

 

Frosty morning

This autumn was half of an autumn for quite some time, until last week leaves started to fall, and this week the temperatures dropped, at least temporarily. This morning was the first frosty one.

 

 

 

 

 

Crab apples

Apples are ripe. Not that we have any apple trees of our own, but there's a whole lot of them in the neighborhood, and all those crab apple trees next to the paths where I walk with the dogs.

 

 

Shaggy cap

There stands one lone shaggy cap by the road. A tall one it is, too! Before it opened its cap, it looked like the Seattle Needle in the grassy undergrowth of the forest side.

 

 

Mushrooms

September is here, autumn is here. A strange on it is. Trees are still persistantly green, musrooms are not receiving the message that autumn is here. There are some here and there, popping out, but none of that outburst that the weather conditions - except for the warm nights that haven't dipped below +10C as of yet - would have already suggested.

 

 

Out on a sunny day

Today has been a sunny day, after a couple weeks of rain and thunder. Several times has it happened in the past days that I have left home for a walk with the dogs in full sunshine, with my sunglasses on, and gotten wet halfway through our walk. Sun casting shadows, hard rain falling on me and the dogs. True eeyore-moments... Not today, though :) Sun has been out for good all day. Then again, I haven't. We've been resting and taking it easy mostly, after a few rather eventful days and sleepless nights.

So, only some moderate dog walks today, in the sun. Enough to feel the warmth and cherish the light. And take a couple pics of a chokeberry tree and that hydrangea paniculata, that has turned almost completely pink now.

 

 

 

Hail and thunder

This year, after the hot weeks were over, we've had one heck of a thunder season. Can't remember similar. Thunder and lightning and hard rain day after day, several days a week. Today was the latest episode of thunder and lightning right on top of us, accompanied by hard rain and hail, nearly 1cm in diameter.

Berries

Fruit and berries are ripening fast with the approaching autumn. Late summer flowers are blooming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bolete

Hot and humid days turned to cool rainy ones a couple weeks ago. All this rain with occasional sun has gotten the mushrooms popping up here and there and everywhere. A bolete even decided to grow at the edge of our lawn.